Baseball's Hall of Fame or Hall of Shame (28 page)
As far as an assessment of the relative evils committed by both men, there are two possible interpretations. The first views Jackson’s act as the more heinous of the two. After all, he took a bribe to throw the World Series and actually performed at less than 100 percent of his full capabilities, something Rose never did. Jackson’s actions directly affected the outcomes of his team’s games and were, in essence, the same as betting against his own team. Rose was never found guilty of betting against his own team. What he did seems almost harmless, by comparison.
However, things could also be viewed from a different perspective. Shoeless Joe Jackson was a poor South Carolina farm boy who could neither read nor write. He was naïve about the ways of the world, easily influenced by others, and probably didn’t even fully comprehend the overall impact his actions would have on the game. He was also grossly underpaid by his team’s tight-fisted owner. More importantly, he was contrite—something Rose never was. He offered to provide details of his wrongdoing to his team’s owner, but was ignored. Rose, on the other hand, was fully aware of what he was doing, and what the possible consequences might be. His actions were not prompted so much by greed, but, rather, by an insatiable desire to compete, as well as a serious addiction to gambling. He also remained defiant and lied openly for 14 years, denying that he ever bet on baseball. Finally, desperate for reinstatement, Rose admitted his guilt in 2004. However, even his confession was an insincere one since it conveniently coincided with the publication of his book, in which he finally accepted culpability for his actions.
So, take your pick. Which one was worse?
Walter Johnson/Lefty Grove
As the greatest righthanded and lefthanded pitchers of all time, Johnson and Grove head the list of exceptional pitchers whose Hall of Fame credentials would not be questioned by anyone.
During the Deadball Era, there were many outstanding pitchers, some of whom totally dominated the hitters of the day. However, the most dominant hurler of all, and quite possibly the greatest pitcher in the history of the game was the Washington Senators Walter Johnson. Although the Senators were a second-division team for much of Johnson’s career, the big righthander still managed to win 416 games (against 279 losses) and compile a .599 career winning percentage. During his career, Johnson won 38 games by a score of 1-0, and lost 27 others by the same score. He holds the major league record for lifetime shutouts (110), his career ERA of 2.16 is the lowest of any American League pitcher with more than 2,000 innings, and his 416 wins are the most by any pitcher during the 20th century.
Johnson led the American League in wins six times, ERA five times, strikeouts twelve times, innings pitched five times, and shutouts seven times. He captured the pitcher’s version of the triple crown—by leading the league in wins, ERA, and strikeouts in the same season—three times. Johnson won more than 20 games twelve times during his career, surpassing 30 victories on two separate occasions. He won at least 20 games in every season from 1910 to 1919. Over that 10-year stretch, Johnson was clearly the best pitcher in the American League, and he was the finest pitcher in the game in many of those seasons. In nine of those years, his ERA was less than 2.00, and his mark of 1.14 in 1913 is the best in A.L. history for pitchers with more than 200 innings. In that remarkable 1913 season, Johnson also finished with a won-lost record of 36-7, 243 strikeouts, and 12 shutouts. That year, Johnson won the first of his two Most Valuable Player Awards, a feat accomplished by only two other pitchers in baseball history.
If anyone could rival Johnson as the greatest pitcher in baseball history, that man would be Lefty Grove. Pitching for the Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Sox from 1925 to 1941, during much more of a hitter’s era, Grove was the dominant pitcher of his time. He finished with 300 wins and only 141 losses, thereby compiling a lifetime winning percentage of .680, one of the best in baseball history. He led the American League in wins four times, ERA a record nine times, strikeouts seven times, and winning percentage five times. While Grove’s career earned run average of 3.06 runs per game may not seem particularly impressive on the surface, it was a truly exceptional mark considering the era during which it was compiled. In both 1930 and 1931, Grove’s ERA was more than two runs a game below the league average. The 1931 season was the best of Grove’s career. Not only did he capture the pitcher’s version of the triple crown for the second of three times that year by finishing 31-4, with a 2.06 ERA and 175 strikeouts, but Grove was also named the American League’s Most Valuable Player.
During his career, Grove won more than 20 games eight times, including seven consecutive years from 1927 to 1933. For those seven seasons he was clearly the best pitcher in the game, and his won-lost record of 152-41 from 1928 to 1933 has to go down as one of the greatest accomplishments ever.
Christy Mathewson/Grover Cleveland Alexander
With the exception of Walter Johnson, Mathewson and Alexander were the most dominant pitchers of the Deadball Era. They were clearly the best pitchers in the National League during that period, and they were arguably the greatest hurlers in the history of the league.
Many baseball historians consider Christy Mathewson to be the greatest pitcher in National League history. Pitching almost exclusively for the New York Giants from 1900 to 1916, Mathewson won more than 20 games 13 times, compiling as many as 30 victories on four different occasions. From 1903 to 1914 he won no fewer than 22 games in any season, leading the National League in wins four times, ERA and strikeouts five times each, and shutouts four times. He finished with an earned run average under 2.00 five times, with his personal best coming in 1909 with a mark of 1.14. However, his finest season was the previous year, when he finished 37-11, with a 1.43 ERA, 259 strikeouts, 11 shutouts, 390 innings pitched, and 34 complete games to win the pitcher’s triple crown for the second time. He also won at least 30 games in each year from 1903 to 1905.
Mathewson was one of the two or three best pitchers in baseball, and the best pitcher in the National League, in virtually every season from 1903 to 1914. Until Walter Johnson came along, and later, Grover Cleveland Alexander during the second decade of the 20th century, he was clearly the best pitcher in the game. Mathewson finished his career with a record of 373 wins against only 188 losses, and an earned run average of 2.13—one of the best ever.
As dominant as Mathewson was during the first decade of the 20th century, Grover Cleveland Alexander was just as dominant over the next ten seasons. From 1911 to 1920, pitching first for the Phillies and then the Cubs, Alexander won at least 22 games seven times, including six seasons with at least 27 victories. He won the pitcher’s triple crown in each season from 1915 to 1917, finishing with records of 31-10, 33-12, and 30-13, and ERA’s of 1.22, 1.55, and 1.83 in those years. Over his career, Alexander won at least 20 games nine times, and he finished with an earned run average under 2.00 six times. He led the league in wins five times, ERA four times, strikeouts six times, and shutouts seven times. His 16 shutouts in 1916 remain the major league record, and his 90 career shutouts are second only to Walter Johnson’s 110. Alexander was clearly the National League’s best pitcher from 1913 to 1917, and he was rivaled only by Johnson as the best pitcher in the game over that stretch.
Cy Young
Cy Young was the most durable pitcher the game has ever seen, and also one of the greatest. He holds several records that will never be broken. Among them are his records for most career wins (511), most innings pitched (7,354), most games started (815), and most complete games (749). Pitching for five different teams during his 22-year career, Young had 15 seasons with at least 20 wins, including five seasons with more than 30 victories. He won at least 20 games in all but one season from 1891 to 1904. Young led his league in wins four times, ERA, strikeouts, and innings pitched two times each, and shutouts seven times. Although he had many great seasons, Young was at his very best in 1901, when, pitching for the Boston Red Sox, he finished 33-10 with an ERA of 1.62, 38 complete games, and five shutouts. Young was among the two or three best pitchers in baseball in virtually every season from 1892 to 1904, and was among the five or ten greatest pitchers in the history of the game.
Satchel Paige
The most legendary figure, and the greatest pitcher in the history of the Negro Leagues, was Satchel Paige. The first Negro League player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, Paige was the league’s greatest drawing card and was rivaled only by Josh Gibson as its most famous player.
On barnstorming tours against major league players Paige regularly got the best of the likes of Dizzy Dean and Bob Feller, and he was known to walk hitters intentionally to get to Joe DiMaggio. DiMaggio once said that Paige “was the best I ever faced.”
Although he didn’t get to pitch in the major leagues until he was already in his forties, Paige was still extremely effective when he joined the Cleveland Indians in 1948, helping them win the American League pennant that year.
Cool Papa Bell was quoted in
Baseball When the Grass Was
Real
as saying, “Satchel Paige was the fastest…I’ve seen Walter Johnson, Dizzy Dean, Bob Feller, Lefty Grove, all of them. All he threw for years was that fastball.”
Sandy Koufax/Warren Spahn
Although Spahn was a study in consistency and durability, while Koufax was brilliant for only a few seasons, these two men have been grouped together because they were the two greatest lefthanded pitchers of the second half of the 20th century.
While some baseball historians object to Sandy Koufax being included among the very greatest pitchers of all time due to the relative brevity of his career, few of them would argue that he may well have been the greatest pitcher the game has ever seen for four seasons.
Koufax pitched in the major leagues for the Dodgers for only 12 seasons, and he was a good pitcher for only half his career. After struggling with his control his first six seasons, Koufax finally became a “pitcher” instead of a “thrower” in 1961. Over the next two seasons he was very good, winning 18 and 14 games, respectively, and leading the league with 269 strikeouts in 1961, and with a 2.54 ERA in 1962.
However, from 1963 to 1966, Koufax dominated baseball as no other pitcher ever has. In those four seasons, he won the Cy Young Award three times, even though only one trophy was presented for both leagues combined, won the pitcher’s triple crown three times, won the N.L. MVP Award once, and finished second in the balloting two other times. For those four years, he was not only the best pitcher in baseball, but he was arguably the best player in the game. Here is his record for those four seasons:
1963:
25 wins, 5 losses; 1.88 ERA; 306 strikeouts; 311 innings pitched; 11 shutouts; 20 complete games.
1964:
19 wins, 5 losses; 1.74 ERA; 223 strikeouts; 7 shutouts.
1965:
26 wins, 8 losses; 2.04 ERA; 382 strikeouts; 335 innings pitched; 8 shutouts; 27 complete games.
1966:
27 wins, 9 losses; 1.73 ERA; 317 strikeouts; 323 innings pitched; 5 shutouts; 27 complete games.
From 1962 to 1966, Koufax’s won-lost record was an amazing 111-34. That mark is rivaled only by Lefty Grove’s six-season record of 152-41 from 1928 to 1933. Although the 1960s featured many outstanding pitchers, none of them came close to Koufax. In spite of the fact that he won only 165 games during his career (against only 87 losses), he was the greatest pitcher of his time, and one of the greatest ever.
In his 22-year major league career, spent mostly with the Braves, Warren Spahn won more games (363) than any other lefthander in baseball history. His thirteen seasons with 20 or more victories tied Christy Mathewson for the most by any pitcher during the 20th century. He led the National League in wins eight times, including five consecutive seasons from 1957 to 1961. He also led the league in ERA three times, strikeouts, innings pitched, and shutouts four times each, and complete games nine times, including seven in a row from 1957 to 1963.
Spahn won only one Cy Young Award during his career, but that was primarily because the award wasn’t presented prior to 1956, Spahn’s eleventh full season in the majors. Even after that, only one award was presented annually throughout the remainder of his career. However, Spahn was one of the five best pitchers in baseball in virtually every season from 1953 to 1961, failing to win at least 20 games only once during that period, and averaging 21 wins a season. He was the best pitcher in the game in at least three or four of those years, with probably his finest season coming in 1953. That year, Spahn finished 23-7, with a 2.10 ERA, 24 complete games, and five shutouts. He was selected to the National League All-Star Team 14 times and finished in the top five in the MVP voting four times.